Alabama

Alabama State makes risky gamble by quickly taking Isaiah Crowell

Isaiah Crowell held up a dog when announcing his highly-anticipated decision to sign with Georgia. After one season, he's at Alabama State.

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Never underestimate the power of talent. Talent allows risks to be weighed and justified, all in the name of providing second chances for players who can win games.

There's a fine line between acceptable and dangerous risks. Good luck finding that stripe in the Football Championship Subdivision, where teams accept wayward players they once had no shot of signing who failed on the big stage.

Alabama State just made a major gamble by quickly adding troubled Georgia running back Isaiah Crowell.

In one year, Crowell managed to have a one-quarter suspension for academics, a one-game suspension for a failed drug test, and a permanent dismissal following his arrest on felony gun charges last week. Put simply, Crowell's wisest decision in the past 365 days was not pulling out hornets to announce he's going to Alabama State.

Jon Solomon is a columnist for The Birmingham News. Join him for live web chats on college sports on Wednesdays at 2 p.m.

"Obviously, I'd be pulling your leg if I didn't say he's an outstanding football player," Alabama State coach Reggie Barlow said Friday. "Also a guy like myself, who has experienced a bunch in life when I was given another opportunity, I think I can help him."

Maybe so. But the danger for Alabama State is it already faces Academic Progress Rate penalties in 2012 -- four hours less per week of practice time. So a team penalized for losing too many players took less than a week to enroll someone with at least three strikes as a freshman?

Alabama State is trying to say the right things. Barlow said Crowell isn't a gamble and the school did its homework by talking to Georgia officials (although curiously not Mark Richt), Crowell's parents and a couple coaches from his hometown of Columbus, Ga.

"There have been some people who have said some good things," Barlow said. "Everybody can say what you want to hear and say it nicely. But at the end of the day, it's going to be Isaiah held accountable for his actions at Alabama State."

How the school could have possibly thoroughly vetted Crowell in less than a week is a mystery.

"A lot of times you recruit them for six months, but that ain't guaranteeing you know what you're getting," Barlow said. "When you know that you're up against the clock per se and you want to try to get a good player on your team, you do the research."

Perhaps moving this quickly explains why Alabama State's recent APR score is 883 and ranked 239th out of 243 Division I football schools. Only Hampton, Idaho State, North Carolina A&T State and Texas Southern are lower.

The Hornets lost 15 scholarship players before last season due to academics plus two transfers were denied eligibility. Barlow said many of those players are back in school. Those APR hits could linger and lead to more substantial penalties.

"I'm not sure any of us have a complete grasp on (the APR) because you're talking about kids who come from all over," Barlow said. "Who knows how they'll respond once they get to college? We have everything here to support them."

Alabama State's football team has failed to reach the 925 APR benchmark in six of seven years. One reason the Hornets have avoided a postseason ban is because they're graduating players, Barlow said.

The football team's most recent NCAA Graduation Success Rate was 71 percent -- the best in the SWAC and better than all but three SEC teams -- after years of hovering between 38 and 55 percent. Alabama State graduates 24 percent of its total student body, according to the latest federal rates.

As for Crowell's problems at Georgia, "he hasn't done that at Alabama State," Barlow said. Barlow cites as an example recent Alabama State linebacker Nigel Carr, who went incident-free after getting kicked out of Florida State following his burglary arrest.

"There's a direct correlation in things people do at previous relationships, previous schools, and when they go to another another opportunity, things are different," Barlow said.

The end game, of course, is Crowell finding the end zone. Barlow said it's unfair to ask whether Alabama State would have taken Crowell if he wasn't so talented.

"If he blows this one," Barlow said, "things may not work out for him in education and getting to the next level."